“Refire—an attitude of embracing the years ahead with enthusiasm rather than apathy.”
Source: Refire! Don't Retire: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
“I now urge friends and acquaintances to have conversations with their aging parents and within their families while their parents are still relatively healthy and of sound mind.”
Source: A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent
“The older you get, the closer your loves are to the surface. She was breathing rarefied air, the ether you come upon at high altitudes. I understood finally how long-held grievances and petty smallnesses might get burned off, and pure creativity and humour remain.”
Source: Alone in the Classroom
“They rarely look at Baba -- the teenagers -- and then only with cold indifference, or even subtle disdain, as if my father should have known better than to allow old age and decay to happen to him.”
Source: And the Mountains Echoed
“Po nikim tak człowiek nie widzi dokładnie starości, jak po starzejących się ojcu, matce. To starość, która nas boli, z którą współcierpimy, na którą jesteśmy skazani, aby się w niej przeglądać i odnajdywać siebie. Może to dzięki ich starości przyzwyczajamy się i do własnej i z większym zrozumieniem ją znosimy.”
Source: Ucho Igielne
“Later in life, children are often reluctant for a host of reasons to assume responsibility over their parents, a reversal of roles that symbolizes mortality.”
Source: Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
“The significance of living longer is the caregiving never ends.”
Source: The Complete Eldercare Planner, Revised and Updated 4th Edition: Where to Start, Which Questions to Ask, and How to Find Help
“They wheeled my father up. "Hi Dad," I touched his hand, which was locked down under a thick restraining belt. His sweat pants were stained with food; the socks on his feet were twisted and wrong. "We'll meet you inside," I yelled. My father craned his neck and answered: "Two. Four. Seventeen."
The New York Times Magazine, LIVES”
“Beloved, it is when one transitions from the realm of passive observation to the active pursuit of divine connection that the forces of opposition are stirred, for in the very act of praising and worshiping the Almighty, the gates of chaos are flung open, unleashing the tempestuous winds of resistance.”
“It hurts watching my dad smile at air, while aging in despair.”